From looking at the bio, it’s worth noting the literary types mentioned: the names of Richard Brautigan, Oscar Wilde, and Charles Bukowski are invoked alongside those of Arthur Russell and Harry Nilsson. All of which seems like catnip designed to lure in lit-bloggers such as ourselves. And…evidently, it worked.

I will get older and I will probably get more jaded. Hopefully when I reach that point of the seen it all/done it all 40-something (like this guy), I will still love music that incorporates teenage angst and/or surf rock into its formula.

Sauna are from Denver, so I’m not quite sure what they know about surfing. That doesn’t mean they can’t put out a great release called The Teen Angst Tape, that sounds like they’ve listened to quite a bit of The B52s, Dick Dale, and The Pandoras in their short time on this earth.

The post title does not refer to the last of a dozen Yetis roaming the countryside. Even better: it’s a reference to the latest issue of the long-running Portland-based publication. The new issue features a slightly tweaked format, lengthy articles on Tiki Men and NYHC, and a cover illustration (see above) by Carson Ellis. The accompanying seven inch features Grouper covering Dead Moon, as well. In other words, it’s basically tapped into the collective unconscious of Vol.1’s editorial department…

I really don’t think I can come up with one punk label that had as huge an effect on me as Lookout! Records did when I was a teenager. While my tastes would change as I got older, there was hardly anything as thrilling to a 14-year-old kid in the suburbs than to receive a Lookout! poster/catalog in the mail, then checking off nearly every release that I wanted to buy.

As you may or may not have heard, the label closed down this week after several years of financial distress. It’s odd to think of something like a record label that was once so important to me being no more. I haven’t bought an actual Lookout! release in almost a decade, but the news of the label closing up shop saddens me, and also makes me get a little nostalgic.

While the music was an obvious first, I realized long ago that a lot of the people involved with Lookout!, along with folks like Ian Mackaye and Kathleen Hanna, were all part of a generation of punks who showed that you could be angry, you could play loud music, you could be politically savvy, and you didn’t have to be a complete lunkhead. Lookout! and the people involved with the label for its nearly 25-year existence had an immeasurable impact on me, and besides mentioning off thirty records from their extensive discography, (the Filth/Blatz split is still one of my favorite records ever), here are a few other reasons Lookout! was so culturally relevant: Continue reading →